Anthony Burch throws down the gauntlet.
Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy.
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Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy.
Anthony Burch throws down the gauntlet.
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I saw that awhile back. The guy is, well, irrational. And I say that knowing full well we’re talking about people that don’t exist. Here’s the response I wrote in an e-mail to a friend about this (keep in mind said friend doesn’t care for Superman all that much but agreed with me):
A pretty good response. And I will note that most of the Superman movies made since the 1980s have involved Superman almost dying for one reason or another, which kinda shoots down the guy’s central point.
I also think that, while the guy makes a good point about Superman being too powerful to be interesting–I’ve sympathized with this viewpoint since I was a teenager back in the early ’80s–it does appear that Superman’s writers have over the years started to recognize that making him too invulnerable makes him much too uninteresting. The Superman stories I occasionally see today (I’m not a big fan so I don’t read or watch them much) are far more interesting, and show Superman as more limited and more prone to error or being hurt than the stories I grew up reading as a small child in the ’70s. Those had gotten so bad, it was ridiculous; Superman really could do just about anything, and couldn’t be hurt by almost anything, so you either had to have badly contrived stories with magic or kryptonite or put under red sunlight being the threat (which all get very boring after you’ve seen it done a few dozen times), or he had to be stupid, because every story seemed to end with Superman somehow remembering that he could use his super speed, or his super vision, or his super computer brain, or whatever other power he could have used in the beginning of the story to end everything.
Granted, the Comics Code Authority and the target audience probably had something to do it. But when I grew up, I suddenly realized that Superman was *just too freaking boring*, and I lost almost complete interest.
I kinda got over it, and frankly I eventually lost interest in the entire concept of superheroes. Even now, I like the occasional movie or cartoon within the genre, but I mostly don’t care for that fare on a regular basis.
…like, I notice the Superman cartoons made in the ’90s, Superman was seriously bothered by electricity, someone actually could be comparable in strength to him and really hurt him by punching him, etc. This is a pretty far cry from the Superman I grew up with, who could take megawatts of electric current without blinking and who might be thrown back by getting hit but wasn’t really recognizably phased by it. And the guy could do *anything*; inhale hard enough to suck up the atmosphere of an entire planet; stand on his head and literally push the Earth into a new orbit; use his super-speed to whip around and bamboozle any enemy (if only he didn’t forget he could do that for an entire issue until the end), etc.
Superdickery has a whole wonderful section on strange powers – which Superman from the 60′s (and sometimes earlier) finds a special place in.
My favorite cartoon with Superman is the episode of Justice League (…or Justice League Unlimited, I forget which series) where he’s totally played for a fool by Luthor – and gets pretty beat up by Captain Marvel in the process.
It really illustrates the limitations of the character. He knows Luthor is up to something, but he doesn’t think nearly as deviously as Luthor does, and thus loses out in the mental battlefield.
He only barely manages to defeat Captain Marvel ‘in time’ to ‘save the day’, and is clearly battered by the end of the fight. The level of damage the two of them do to the city is also great, entire buildings are ruined, and at one point a bank vault is wielded casually as a bludgeon.
Of course, as a Captain Marvel fanboy, it’s nice to see him get *any* time in the spotlight on TV…
Elisha Feger’s last blog post..…
Superman has a weakness…
http://mostfunnypictures.com/pics/991.jpg
I have fond memories of Superman ;-) Of course due to my age, that was many years ago. Fun, what fun my brother and I had playing Superman and Lois!
(Dean, check your e-mail for recent pictures of your sister)
Luthor is one of the most brilliant characters in the DCU. That Superman is able to thwart him as often as he does just goes to show how smart Superman actually is. And if Luthor couldn’t occasionally pull one over on Superman he’d certainly not be living up to his own intellect.
And since you love Captain Marvel so much, why not crack open Kingdom Come and see what Luthor did to him there.
Then come back to me and tell me how dumb Superman is.
And Superman still won that fight against Captain Marvel! “Barely manages” is still winning. Especially given the two are essentially equal power-wise.
And Kevin somehow interprets what I wrote as an attack on Superman…
Because it wasn’t, dude. It was just “Hey look, Superman isn’t god. he’s like a real character!”
Elisha Feger’s last blog post..…
Kevin got it so right, I’ve been sitting here sulking all day because I had nothing brilliant to add.
But then I thought: when has that ever stopped me?
Darkseid can take him. Orion probably can, along with a fair number of other New Gods. Doomsday maybe. The Cyborg. Probably Wonder Woman, since she’s far more of a warrior. All manner of magical characters. Mxyzptlk. Captain Marvel comes close. Luthor on a good day. Supergirl possibly. The White Martians. The Martian Manhunter. More than a few Green Lanterns. Sinestro.
And as the article itself points out, Batman.
Good grief, what a loser: he refutes himself in the foot, and never even notices.
Pretty much. What makes it laughable is the guy’s so left wing, he thinks Superman is right wing. It’s like he can’t even see how left wing the politics are in practically every comic out there. Especially Superman.
And let us not forget the classic story, “Must There Be a Superman?”, in which he learned exactly this lesson: if he solves every problem for us, we’ll never grow and learn.
Well, to be fair, there was an alternate future JLA story — I think it was near the end of Grant Morrison’s run — where Batman and the Atom teamed up and killed Darkseid. Cost them both their lives, but Batman pulled it off.
Then the timeline got straightened out, and none of it ever happened.
Why, MJ, I’m sure that was just a few brief summers ago!
Elisha,
Well, double-frak you! Superman is the greatest hero… what? No, not now, I’m busy… she didn’t attack Superman?… that can’t be… really… oh… my bad…
I get a little touchy when the topic of Superman comes up. He probably my favorite superhero and he gets dumped on way too much.
Martin,
No worries, mate. I’ve always got Superman’s back.
I can only add:
DESTROY!!
Superman is my favorite superhero too.
I like him because I think he faces the greatest temptation, and over comes it almost without thought. As the aphorism goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but not in the case of Superman.
To me, that ideal, is worth cherishing.
It isn’t being a Kryptonian that makes Superman so great, it is being a small town boy from Kansas who shows the best of that upbringing. If all of us could be as responsible with our talents as Superman is with his, then yes, the world probably wouldn’t need a Superman.
Dave Justus’s last blog post..Micahel Yon in the Wall Street Journal
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